The present invention relates to intumescable fire stop devices. In particular, the present invention is a fire stop device with heat conducting elements that channel heat to the interior regions of an intumescent material.
Fires typically start in one portion of a building, such as a room or office. From there, fires can spread quickly to adjoining offices or rooms and even to adjacent floors. Structural members, such as walls and ceilings slow the progression of the fires to adjoining areas since the fires must burn through these members to pass to adjacent offices and rooms. However, buildings traditionally have a large amount of plastic and insulated piping that provide needed services to the users of the building. For these pipes to pass from one room or office to the next, through holes need to be cut in walls and ceilings. Heat from fires can melt the plastic pipes as well as burn off the insulation on insulated pipes. This creates large through holes through which fires can spread from one room or office to adjacent floors and/or rooms or offices.
To slow this progression of fires, intumescable fire stop devices have been developed. Theses devices essentially comprise a collar used to secure an intumescent material about the plastic or insulated pipe at the through hole in a wall or ceiling. Heat from fires causes the plastic pipe to melt or burns off the insulation on the insulated pipe. At the same time, the heat from the fires causes the intumescent material to expand closing off the through hole left by the melted plastic pipe or left by the burned off insulation on the insulated pipe. The expanded intumescent material in the through hole in the wall or ceiling creates an insulating, fire retardant barrier that slows the spread of fires.
One such intumescable fire stop device is manufactured by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corporation of St. Paul, Minn. under the name Fire Barrier RC-1 Restricting Collar. This device is installed by first wrapping an intumescent material about a pipe and holding the intumescent material in place with tape. A sheet metal collar, must be cut to length, is then wrapped around the intumescent material and held in place with a hose clamp. Support tabs along a bottom edge of the collar are then bent inward to support the intumescent material. After mounting tabs along a top edge of the collar are bent out, the collar and intumescent material assembly is slid up the pipe to the through hole in the wall or ceiling. The assembly is secured to the wall or ceiling at the through hole by fasteners that pass through the mounting tabs and into the wall or ceiling. Any seams or edges at the interface of the assembly, the pipe and the wall or ceiling are filled with a bead of intumescent calk. Though this device is effective, it is time consuming to install.
It is evident that there is a continuing need for improved intumescable fire stop devices. Specifically, there is need for a fire stop device that is easy and less time consuming to install. In addition, there is needed a fire stop device that effectively and efficiently channels heat to the intumescent material so that the intumescent material expands quickly and uniformly.